Women serve in, help finance, and authorize the activities of this country's armed forces, yet those who serve remain unknown and those who are accountable often forget their responsibility. In the last twenty-five years the U.S. military has seen the abolition of women's separate corps, the appointment of women generals, and an unprecedented increase in the ratio of women to men. Also, women are now permitted to serve on combat planes and ships. Despite these developments, most civilians know very little about women in the military. This collection includes unusual accounts by women on active duty, retired officers, women who have worked for the armed forces in a civilian capacity, and civilian academics. The book offers insights on a variety of pressing issues including minority women, lesbians, combat, the role of gender in weapons design, and the changing mission of the military. Through personal accounts and commentaries, this book dispels many of the myths about women and the military and explores the reasons for the persistence of misconceptions in the face of increased female participation. This comprehensive effort will be of interest to anyone who wants to know the truth about women in the armed forces and will be a wake-up call to women who feel that the military is irrelevant to them.

Soldiering: the enemy doesn't care if you're female /Rhonda Cornum -- Duty, honor, country: if you're straight / Virginia Solms -- Creation of army officers and the gender lie: Betty Grable or Frankenstein? / Billie Mitchell -- Just the facts, ma'am / Judith Hicks Stiehm -- Military woman's vanguard: nurses / Connie L. Reeves -- From underrepresentation to overrepresentation: African American women / Brenda L. Moore -- Gender and weapons design / Nina Richman-Loo and Rachel Weber -- Gender ideology in the ethics of women in combat / Lucinda Joy Peach -- To fight, to defend, and to preserve the peace: the evolution of the U.S. military and the role of women within it / M.C. Devilbiss -- Pernicious cohesion / Carol Burke -- Telling the war story / Susan Jeffords -- Subverting the gender and military paradigms / Miriam Cooke -- Civilian mind / Judith Hicks Stiehm.